Thought I would comment on this game as no one else seems inclined. It appears we scraped a fortunate point against a decent but not world beating National League side. This once more confirms my belief that although we are (these days) hard to beat, we don't score enough goals to win enough games to seriously threaten the play off spots. Even if we had a 20 goal a season striker (which we don't) we don't have enough possession to carve out goal scoring opportunities. Even Harrison said "we need to work the keeper more". I presume he meant the opposition keeper cos Loach always has plenty of work to do. On Saturday I gather we had one or two crosses but I am not sure if the Boreham keeper had a save to make despite the fact that in the last quarter we had Cassidy, Rodney, Franks and one of the new injury prone strikers on all at once.

Aldershot at home next Sat. A pound to a bucket of s**t it is another draw.

Still playing with fear, which is making us uncomfortable and tense on the ball.

As suggested somewhere we're all about 'not losing', but it's not having the desired effect of building confidence or at least it's not evident in the way we're setting up at opposition set pieces, defending our box or how we're performing in the final third.

Work in progress you have to say. After a dreadful start to the season we are becoming hard to beat but not enough penetration to win games that we should. I think Harrison is proving to be good at the job and, though I don't see us in the promotion places this season, I also can't see us in a relegation scrap either. Next season we should be more likely promotion candidates I hope.

Second half of the season is yet to start, we’ve players to come back etc. The bad start certainly did a bit of damage but we rode that particular storm, second half looks more promising.

Four strikers on Saturday and we still couldn’t score is a concern. There are more experienced sides than us here and I think it’s gonna take quality over quantity [whether it’s in midfield or upfront] to unlock wiser defences of those above us and let us settle in the promised land that is the top three.

Think it’s achievable this season but Harrison’s aspirations have to match the fans anticipation/expectations.

Sorry although I may be in a minority of one i simply don’t think Craig Harrison IS proving man enough for the job. IMO the owners could and should have appointed a manager with significant experience of football at this level.

Pools are a decent size club here in the Netherworld and many decent applicants were discarded as a result of the left field appointment of Harrison. Remember also that he took almost two months to get up to speed during which time many priceless points were lost that have directly led to the side playing catch-up which is the current situation.

By his own admission Harrison doesn’t like ‘star players’ which more than partly explains the drab assembly of poor quality journeymen who are currently representing our club. It is a fact that there are quicker, more physical and definitely more effective part-time players plying their trade for the likes of Spennymoor, Harrogate Town and Blyth Spartans in the league below. It. It beggars belief that Harrogate for example can afford to pay £30k for some part-time numpty from Darlo whilst Pools with 3k+ attendances can only dream of splashing such cash. The owners must surely be doing something wrong?

It is also a fact that if not for the outstanding Loach we would be scrabbling around for points at the bottom with the likes of Torquay. There must be a strong possibility that the lad will be on his way if we don’t go up this season so that must be factored into any cheap talk of ‘automatic’ promotion next season.

Additionally, Harrison rather amazingly still doesn’t seem to know what his first choice team is and he is criminally negative as evidenced by his penchant of pulling everything that moves back into the penalty area for opposition set pieces. It’s a wonder that the ball girls and corner flags haven’t been similarly dragged back.

Apart from the aforementioned Loach the squad is badly lacking in quality all over the park. Instead of plodding along being satisfied to remain unbeaten since time began and maintaining that ‘every little thing is gonna be alright’ Harrison should be looking to ship out some of the deadwood with a view to introducing some fresh blood in the second half of the season if he is truly serious about taking the club back into the EFL at the first time of asking (ooh me ribs)

In answer to Block Sands who said we could get promotion next season. Next season we lose the "parachute" payment we got this season when we got relegated so that means there will much less money for wages so a promotion push will be more difficult than it is already proving to be. We will probably have a much smaller squad and the players we want to keep who are out of contract will have lower wages offered which may make them want to move out. Also, if you are a reasonable player with ambition why would you spend a second year in the National League if you had the option to move on? I can see that some of them were prepared to give the club the benefit of the doubt and try and get promotion this season but if we fail I suspect they will be on their bikes. So in conclusion, failure to get promotion this season will be a disaster for this club and may well lead to many years of residency in the National league.

Good post Alf, right on the money. Too many supporters appear to have very limited expectations of what the side should be aiming to achieve this season. Craig Harrison has been given licence to transform the club from perennial L2 strugglers over recent years into genuine promotion contenders aided by what Pam Duxbury has describied as one of the biggest playing budgets in the NL.

Although Harrison thankfully managed to turn things around after a horrendous start to the campaign, primarily due to his inexperience and naivety, his players have hardly set the league alight. Despite this he seems to be beyond reproach by fans who have every right to see this club making a decent fist of an immediate return to the EFL.

Harrison has got out of jail on numerous occasions either due to the outstanding performances of Scott Loach or late, late goals that have enabled Pools to pinch the points. However a crunch is coming this week when realistically nothing less than six points from the two forthcoming home games will sufffice in order for the side to finally move into the playoff places.

As you say the club needs to grasp the nettle and make every effort to at least secure a playoff place THIS season but I remain far from convinced that we have either the players (even with an unattainable fully fit squad) or the management team to achieve this.